KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2021) Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko on Friday dismissed recent claims by the Chinese Foreign Ministry accusing Ukraine of harboring labs set up by the US for dangerous biological experiments.
On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called on the US to explain what was going on in its biological labs around the world, including those in Ukraine.
"The statement made by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian during a briefing on April 8 about the US government setting up 16 biological laboratories in Ukraine and using them to conduct non-transparent and dangerous research in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention was based on provocative reports by Russian media outlets, has no grounding in reality and may harm Ukrainian-Chinese relations," Nikolenko told the Lb.ua outlet.
In May, Ukrainian media reported that the US set up eight labs across Ukraine for storing dangerous infectious diseases, allegedly used for countering biological weapons. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency was reportedly involved in setting up new labs as well as upgrading existing ones between 2005 and 2014.
Russia has repeatedly voiced concerns over dozens of labs across the world which it says were built by the US for obscure and dubious biological experiments, including those in Russia's immediate neighborhood.
